(MARLBOROUGH, MA) -- The New Hampshire Monarchs gave the El Paso Rhinos a record-tying thrashing in El Paso’s return to the Silver Cup Playoffs, beating the visitors from far west Texas, 11-4, at the New England Sport Center Tuesday afternoon.
Though the Rhinos had more moral support – even two-thirds the breadth of the country doesn’t seem to extinguish the appearance of Rhinos sweaters at the team’s events – it was, in essence, a home game for the second-place team from the Eastern Junior Hockey League.
The Monarchs migrated a mere 58 miles south of their home in Manchester, NH, for the Tier III, Junior A national championship tournament here.
Nonetheless, El Paso -- champion of the Western States Hockey League -- was bested by a side that protected the puck better, passed better and shot much better than it. Only one other team has managed to score 11 times on the Rhinos – the Dallas Hawks beat El Paso, 11-7, in the franchise's fourth game ever back in 2006. But only Tulsa got close to sniffing double-digits against them this past season. The Rampage dealt the Rhinos their last loss, 7-4, on Feb. 1, 2008 -- almost two months ago.
New Hampshire only outshot the Rhinos by five, 41-36; but that just meant the Monarchs scored on better than 25 percent of their shots.
Winger Jeff Hannan started the barrage just 1:34 into the game, followed exactly 46 seconds later by Brian Flynn.
El Paso drew one back as Nick Gorup one-timed Marcus Wilhite’s pass, beating Monarchs goalie James Mello at 4:22.
But New Hampshire would regain its two-goal lead on Hannan’s second of the contest at 7:34.
Bill Krueger beat Mello on the power play at 8:48, but the Monarchs would answer twice more before first intermission as Jeff Velleca and Ben Ketchum got by Rhinos’ goaltender Arthur Hollinger at 12:39 and 18:37, respectively.
The second period was more of the same, as El Paso continued to reel with news that defenseman Sean Molina suffered a second degree separation in the first frame, finishing the Californian's season.
Flynn notched his second goal at 9:26 of the second while Greg Burk made it 7-1 Monarchs at 13:36. Eric LaBounty scored on the power play at 16:32 for the Rhinos’ second tally, but Rence Coassin got another for New Hampshire while Hannan earned the hat trick against a too-busy Hollinger, both goals coming in the final two minutes of the period.
Hollinger was then pulled for fellow Chicagoan Anthony Natali, but it was more of the same. Jeff Velleca scored at 3:36 and Adam Kaiser on the power play strike at 18:53 gave the Monarchs an eight-point lead.
El Paso centerman/winger Jeff Schmudlach put in the game’s final goal at 13:08 of the third, but the damage is done. The Rhinos must have superlative efforts against both their Wednesday opponents, the Minnesota Junior Owls, and their Thursday foes, the Dubuque Thunderbirds, if they have any hope of advancing to the semifinals.
Minnesota and Dubuque tied, 3-3, in their opener, but a goal differential of minus-7 will make it tough should El Paso find itself tied, record-wise, with another team for the lone wild-card berth in the Silver Cup’s final four. Goal differential is a tie-breaker in determining which team stays alive Friday.
The Rhinos and the Owls can be heard free-of-charge at 2:40 p.m. MDT, courtesy of B2 Networks (www.b2livetv.com) and the El Paso Rhinos. Click the link provided at www.elpasorhinos.com. In addition, www.poinstreak.com will be providing live game tracking of the entire tournament. Just key “USA Hockey” into the hockey searchbar and follow the link to “USA Hockey Junior Hockey Championship”.